Nico Hulkenberg has admitted that he was the one at fault in his clash with Felipe Massa during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

The pair came together as Massa exited the pits on lap 14, the contact ending Hulkenberg's race on the spot while Massa retired later on.

The stewards issued the German a three-place grid penalty at Suzuka for his part in the incident, a decision he was left "bewildered" by at the time.

But the Force India driver on Thursday conceded that he was at fault, and apologised to Massa.

“I looked at the video footage and probably should have given Massa a bit more room because he was on the inside, I had space in the right,” he said.

“Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was heading up but I wasn’t. So, we take the penalty here and put the incident behind now and move on and the make the best out of the weekend."

Strong combination

“I think for both of us work well together - we are a strong combination,” said the German.

“Both of us have faith in the team and see a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward together with the team,” he added.

Force India's announcement ended speculation that Perez could be set for a switch to Lotus/Renault, something the Mexican admitted was a “serious option” before he opted to stay with his current employers for another year.